Wimbledon, On This Day: Leander Paes wins the junior title

Leander Paes’ record at Wimbledon is one to be envied. The stalwart of Indian tennis has won five titles on the Wimbledon court, four in the mixed doubles and one in the men’s doubles. The first Asian man to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Paes’ name is firmly etched into the history books. However, while Paes is well-known for his exploits on the doubles courts, his exploits at the 1990 Wimbledon Junior Championships should not be forgotten. 

1990 would prove to be the year that Paes left a mark on junior tennis. He began the year strongly, competing at the junior event of the Australian Open and making his way to the final where he lost to Dirk Dier of West Germany. He arrived at SW19 eager to make go one better, but faced a tough field between him and the title.

Paes went into the competition seeded eleventh, and quickly progressed through the competition with clinicality. Between the first round and the semifinal, he dropped just a single set (to Canada’s Sebastian Leblanc), knocking out fifth seed Leblanc, and seventh seed Ivan Baron in the semifinal in the process. 

All of this set up a final against South Africa’s Marcos Ondruska, the second seed on July 8 1990. Paes narrowly took the first set 7-5, but Ondruska hit back to claim the second 6-2. The game was delicately poised at a set apiece. However, the young Indian starlet was able to dig deep, and took the final set 6-4 to seal his first title at Wimbledon. In doing so, he became only the third Indian player to win the junior title after Ramanathan Krishnan and Ramesh Krishnan. 

Reflecting on the match in an interview with Sportstar in 1991, Paes said, “I had worked hard for it and I was happy with the reward. There is no short cut to success. It was a good final and I won 7-5, 2-6, 6-4. I was confident of winning even before the final.”

In winning the title, Paes established himself as one of the brightest young talents in both Indian and world tennis, and started a lifelong love story with the hallowed courts of the SW19.